The present invention relates to a connector such as a hybrid optical/electrical connector or optical connector mounted and disposed in a vehicle for use in optical communications inside the vehicle.
Recently, the computerization of vehicles has been advanced dramatically. For example, it is performed that the location of a vehicle is denoted on a map by using car navigation systems. Additionally, by utilizing the ITS (intelligent transport systems), the management of solving traffic congestion of vehicles is conducted. With such computerization, the throughput of communication information such as data, image and voice inside a vehicle has been increasing.
Then, the optical communications using optical fibers as a high capacity medium for transmitting information has been conducted inside vehicles such as automobiles. The optical communications are conducted in which light emitted from a light emitting device is incident into one end side of an optical fiber to propagate along the optical fiber, and the propagating light is received by a light receiving device disposed on the other end side of the optical fiber. In connecting the optical fiber to an optical device such as the light emitting device or light receiving device, an optical connector is generally used.
Furthermore, a plastic optical fiber is easy to handle because of its diameter being larger than that of a glass optical fiber. On this account, the plastic optical fiber is often adapted for use in the communications inside a vehicle.
The connector of the invention comprises:
two or more optical device accommodating parts for accommodating optical devices; and
a connector housing provided with an insertion part for optical fibers connected to the optical devices,
wherein among adjacent optical device accommodating parts, at least adjacent optical device accommodating parts are arranged side by side with their positions displaced relative to each other in the longitudinal direction of the optical fibers inserted into the insertion part for optical fibers.